If I have to sit through another Los Angeles inner city drama about drugs, gang bangers, and crooked cops I think I’m gonna explode! Tick…Tick… BOOM! Too late.

Two screwed-up best friends out and about drinking, smoking, and getting into trouble are the main focus of MGM’s Harsh Times. Christian Bale plays Jim, an ex-soldier trying desperately to get into law enforcement. When rejected by the Los Angeles Police Department, Jim becomes a ticking time bomb and enlists his best friend Mike (Freddy Rodriguez) to come along on a self-destructive mission that becomes more dangerous with every passing minute. Mike goes along at first, but eventually realizes that his buddy is losing it and fears that his association with Jim will only make things worse with his girlfriend Sylvia (Eva Longoria), who happens to hate the ground Jim walks on.

The set-up is very simple and so is the script. A generic street tale that is so predictable and so over-the-top that it’s almost comical. At the core of this movie is a script written by Training Day writer David Ayer. As a writer myself, I was extremely disappointed in what was presented. Characters that do things out of character. Plot points that are brought to the table, but never resolved. Dialogue that is repetitive and juvenile.

Ayer really changed the game with 2001’s Training Day. He brilliantly composed a script that was edgy, fresh, and intense. His current effort falls miserably short. Harsh Times basically follows the same path in a way, but loses its direction early on.

Talent is so wasted on this film. Christian Bale is a great actor who was given a role that wants to be Oscar-caliber, but is so over the top that it makes him look foolish. Ditto for Rodriguez, who I believe is a phenomenally underrated actor, well overdue for leading man status. The one bright light is Longoria, who sheds her Desperate Housewife persona and burns up the screen with her beauty and her talent.

Harsh Times tries to be tough and rugged, but becomes an annoying melodrama by its final frame. A Telemundo movie of the week.

by Thomas Ferguson